WASHINGTON — The military said yesterday that it was developing new computer chip identification dog tags to be worn around the necks of troops and contain extensive medical information for battlefield and other use. Army Surgeon General Ronald Blanck told reporters that the small tags, which would replace the traditional metal dog tags containing only a few lines of stamped information, could be ready for use in 1999. He said the new tags, being tested at a cost of about $10 each, could contain hundreds of pages of medical records such as immunizations, X-rays and other information that could be read and updated regularly using computers. Blanck predicted that the cost of the space age tags, known as "personal information carriers (PIC)," eventually would be only about 75 cents each but would be invaluable in emergency medical situations. "The PIC will be carried by service members and updated by medical personnel using portable computers whenever the service member is examined or treated," the Defense Department said in a statement. Blanck said the tags eventually could contain 256 megabytes of information, including voice and other data. An operational test is planned at a U.S. military installation with a small medical facility. —Reuters More Bits and Pieces News Experts Split over New Role for National Guard British to Review Executions of WWI Deserters U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC). Dog Tags with Bytes US Women in Uniform Ceremony US Nuclear Test Films US Buys MiGs to Keep them from Rogue States Back to Cry Havoc #20 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com